When St. John’s center Abe Keita hoisted up a free throw midway through the second half, Carmelo Anthony took it as comic relief.

Keita’s attempt airballed, sending Anthony into a 10-second laughing fit so intense it almost cost him a lane violation on Keita’s second attempt.

Perhaps Anthony should have held in his amusement, because, from the free-throw line, he gave St. John’s plenty to laugh back at later in the second half of No. 15 Syracuse’s 66-60 win.

Anthony, who had made 21 of his 22 freebies in Syracuse’s last two games, hit 1 of 5 from the stripe, missing his last four. When he went to the line with the score tied late in the second half, he missed both.

“My stroke felt great,” Anthony said. “They just didn’t go in. Sometimes that happens, but I’m not going to let it kill my confidence or anything.”

Anthony blamed his misses in part on a sore left foot that he said hurt his follow-through. He said he suffered the minor injury Saturday against Notre Dame and has received treatment since.

“It just hurts real bad, but it’s not a big thing,” Anthony said. “It cost me on the free throws, but my stroke is still feeling good.”

Anthony, a 70 percent free-throw shooter, struggled from the line early in the season. He made just 5 of 12 in SU’s season-opener against Memphis, lost his confidence and struggled over the next 10 games.

His confidence resurfaced when he hit 11 of his 12 tries against Connecticut on Feb. 10, which carried over to a 10-of-10 performance against Notre Dame.

“His confidence at the line is back,” SU forward Hakim Warrick said. “Now, when he steps up there, you know he’ll hit them. Tonight was out of the ordinary. He’ll hit those almost all the time.”

Back on Pace

After a two-week hiatus from the scoreboard, Josh Pace re-emerged last night. In nine minutes, he scored four points and had three offensive rebounds, his best game in more than a month.

Pace hadn’t scored a basket since he tallied two points on Feb. 1. He hadn’t scored more than five points since SU’s Jan. 11 win over Boston College.

“He looked like the Josh Pace of old,” Warrick said. “He was way more aggressive than he had been.”

Pace — and his production — has suffered since point guard Billy Edelin returned to the lineup Jan. 18. Pace struggled with an ankle injury recently and, as his minutes have waned, so has his confidence.

“Josh did a great job in the first half,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “He made a couple of big plays, which is tough when you haven’t been playing a lot. But he did a nice job. I’m not afraid to put him in there.”

Jarvis peeved

As St. John’s head coach Mike Jarvis ran over to scream at official Ted Hillary, the coach stuffed his hands deep into his pocket in what seemed to be an act of restraint.

With a minute left in the game and St. John’s down four, Hillary blew a late whistle to signal that the Red Storm’s Grady Reynolds had fouled Gerry McNamara. The foul negated a St. John’s steal and allowed McNamara to hit two freebies and extend the SU lead to six.

Immediately after Hillary blew the whistle, Jarvis jammed his hands in his pocket and stomped toward the official, coming so close the two almost bumped chests.

After the game, when a reporter asked Jarvis what play from the game would stick out most, Jarvis referenced the late foul call.

“It won’t be the one that I have in my head at the moment, because I’ll probably get fined, and my best player would probably foul out of the next game,” Jarvis said. “So I won’t even mention what play that would (stick out the most). I’ll let the commissioner of the league, who will review the tape that we will send him, determine what play that will be.”

Said Boeheim: “The guy hit (McNamara). But when (the officials) let that stuff go all game, then maybe there’s a little surprise when it’s actually called.”

This and that

Craig Forth took an elbow to the nose early in the second half and left the game for nine minutes. He returned with a white bandage on his nose. “It will probably be fine,” Forth said. “I just wanted to get something on there to stop the bleeding.” … Boeheim seemed to suffer a minor injury of his own late in the second half, when a Syracuse turnover caused him to rock violently in his chair. Boeheim slid to the bottom of his seat and hit the back of his head on the top of his chair, leaving him wincing and disheveled for a few seconds … The Red Storm’s loss kept Jarvis stuck on 99 wins during his St. John’s head-coaching career.

Published on February 18, 2003 at 12:00 pm